On the wind contribution to the variability of ocean currents over wide continental shelves: a case study on the northern Argentine continental shelf

LAGO, L.S.; SARACENO, M.; MARTOS, P.; GUERRERO, R.A.; PIOLA, A.R.; PANIAGUA, G.F.; FERRARI, R.; ARTANA, C.I.; PROVOST, C.

Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans

American Geophysical Union

Año: 2019

2169-9275

The Southwestern Atlantic Ocean has one of the largest and most productive continental shelves of the southern hemisphere. Despite its relevance, its circulation patterns have been largely inferred from hydrographic observations and numerical models. Here we describe the variability of the shelf circulation based on the analysis of eleven months of multi‐level currents measured by two bottom‐mounted acoustic Doppler current profilers deployed over the continental shelf at 39°S. The record‐length mean is 12 cm s‐1 and 13 cm s‐1 in the upper layer and decreases to 6 cm s‐1 and 8 cm s‐1 near the bottom, at the deployment nearer and further from the coast respectively. The mean flow direction is towards the NE, following the orientation of the isobaths. Measurements at both sites show that the along‐shore barotropic component accounts for 83% of the variability observed and are well correlated (0.86), suggesting a relatively uniform flow, which is presumably driven by large‐scale forcing. Indeed, large scale wind stress patterns dominate the temporal variability of the in‐situ currents and the passage of atmospheric fronts induces significant changes in the observed currents at all depths. We found that for 12 % of the measurements the currents reverse the direction to the SW in response to these atmospheric patterns. Furthermore, the analysis of sea surface height reconstructed from bottom pressure measurements at both sites and from a coastal tide gauge reveals that the variability of the along‐shore currents is driven by the cross‐shore pressure gradients generated by the along‐shore wind stress.